She didn’t have to worry about it. The resounding crash from upstairs neatly took care of the problem.
“Mom! Oh, my God, Mom!” Jess screamed at the top ofher lungs. “I’ve killed him!”
Claire didn’t even bother with goodbyes. She just ran.
Peaches almost beat her up the stairs as the lunch crowdlooked on in stunned silence.
“Jess?” Claire called, pushing aside the plastic drop cloththat protected the first floor from the dust Tony had beengenerating. “Tony?”
Her heart was hammering so hard she could hardly hear.
All that worked its way through was a funny little moan.From her daughter.
Claire crashed down the newly enclosed hallway andheaded for the far bedroom where Tony had been working.
She got there to find Jess bent over him, her eyes huge,her features ashen with shock and her hands covered withblood. Covered with Tony’s blood, if he was any indication. His face streamed with it where he lay sprawled on thefloor at Jess’s knees.
Jess looked up at her mother and gave way to panic.“Mommy, what did I do?” she cried out, looking up, looking back down. “He’s dead!”
It only took Claire a second to size things up and relax. “Go on back downstairs, Peaches,” she suggested, turningto take the towel he always carried on his shoulder. “I’ll yellif I need the paramedics. Tell the guests that everything’s fine. Jess, sit back and take a breath. He’s not dead.”
“But look!”
“You sure?” Peaches asked, features puckered at thesight of a very still Tony.
Claire actually smiled. “I’m sure. Now go. Jess, settle down, honey. He’s fine.”
It hadn’t taken Claire a moment to realize that Jess hadn’treacted to the injury to Tony’s head. She’d reacted to hisstomach. When Tony had fallen off the ladder that lay beneath him, he’d caught his T-shirt on something and ripped it, treating Jess to her first look at the effects of battle on thehuman system, enhanced by the blood she herself had left behind in trying to help him.
Of course, all that blood didn’t help, but Claire was well-enough versed in head injuries to know how dramatic theylooked. And Tony’s looked more dramatic than deadly.Even as she bent to check, his eyes fluttered and he groaned.
“See?” Claire reassured her distraught daughter as shesurreptitiously checked his pulse to find it strong and steady.“What happened?”
“I tripped,” Jess confessed. “I was just trying to help.Tony was teaching me about renovation, ya know? He wason the ladder working on the window frame and... Tony?Tony, can you hear me?”
Considering the volume of her voice, the county officialClaire had just hung up on could have heard her.
“He’s hurt, honey,” she soothed. “Not deaf.”
“I hear you, Jess,” Tony assured her very quietly, as ifany excess use of his voice would hurt worse.
“But you’re hurt!” Jess insisted, tears still streamingdown her face, her gaze riveted by the old scar tissue she’dinadvertently exposed.
“You didn’t do that, sweetheart,” Claire told her daughter even as she pressed Peaches’s towel against the gash she’dfinally found at Tony’s hairline. “That’s an old scar. He justhit his head. You just hit your head, didn’t you, Tony?”
“I just hit my head,” he assured the girl, his eyes closedagain and his hand instinctively up to that other scar on histemple. “I do this at least once a week. Should have warnedyou.”
“You should have warned my insurance company,”Claire retorted easily. “Now, Jess, go wash off your handsin the kitchen and bring back my first-aid box. Don’t upsetthe guests, okay?”
“But Mom—”
“I’m fine, Jess,” Tony said, and smiled to prove thepoint. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
Claire took another look up to find her daughter shakingworse than her patient. “Go on,” she commanded in aclear, calm voice.
Jess lurched to her feet, still stifling sobs, and ran out of the room.
“And walk, Jess!” Claire commanded. “I don’t want youdoing a header down the stairs!”
